boris_unanimate

I had little to no hope this TV show would at least be interesting, let alone good, and I was proven right. Like, mathematically nothing in the story and plot adds up to a coherent subject, that only keeps my attention as I want to see how it finally crashes out.

Coming back to the first after watching almost all of the episodes gives a better impression of the overall idea of the show, but ultimately just reiterates what I've said about the show so far. Though I suspect an unearned and unsatisfying cliffhanger in the end. Some thing never change.

The theme of the series is unclear, it wants a lot of things, but commits to nothing in particular. It pretends to be horror, masquerades as action, imitates drama, and fails to build up thrilling tension and suspense. Armed EMTs is the most inane thing besides no planetary defenses in 2120.

It all starts with a frenetic scene, crashes like a unstoppable burning garbage dumpster, and only offers eye roll worthy set pieces with unredeemable characters. I expected nothing, yet I was still let down. My disappointment is immeasurable, but my day won't be ruined as I like watching disasters unfold.

When a company has found and utilizes the 'Endless Money' cheat when making TV shows based on popular IPs, it can go one of two ways: either it spends the money on good writers and actors, creating something like the latest season of Fargo; or it spends a lot of dough on production design & CGI to mask the lazy and bad writing, like in Alien: Earth.

This episode, likes each before, looks like a million bucks, but the faulty wiring and cracks in the wall, i.e. Bad implementation of ideas that would have looked better in another universe, are visible from space. More asinine decisions, more unclear motivations, just a more of what came before. Unlikable character and inexplicable decision making by supposed galaxy brains.

We finally get a look how the entire disaster started, and of course it's because "evil big corporations" want specimens they can use to create more shareholder value, failing to portray any nuance or keep any mystery. This is a feeble and low effort attempt to copy 1979s Alien, though without any of the smarts of O'Bannon's & Shussett's incredible writing.

It seems nowadays events can only happen if 80% of characters are entirely incompetent, 10% horny and the rest diabolically evil. For people tasked with research, the crew members demonstrate little to no ability to effectively do their jobs. Like in the 2010s Alien movies, nobody has eyes to see what they eat or drink, where they move or what's happening directly around them. Utter ineptitude and basically weaponized incompetence drives the plot.

The alien creatures seem to be the only intelligent life forms on board, besides "security" officer Morrow, who obviously has only 2 character traits - scheming and conniving, apart from a desire to murk his fellow shipmates to ensure the company's plans are enforced, like an android. Despite being human, he's more like Alien's Ash than Ash.

Despite an incredible set design and just copy/pasting the first Alien movie, this episode lacks genuine tension, suspense (impossible), scares and good writing. However, it has a few short moments that make it stand out above the previous episodes.